After Clemson firing, could Lincoln Riley hire his brother Garrett?

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

The USC football team needs to upgrade its coaching staff.

That much is clear after former defensive coordinator D’Anton Lynn was hired by Penn State and the Trojans subsequently suffered an embarrassing Alamo Bowl loss to a mediocre TCU team playing without its starting quarterback.

First things first — the defensive staff

Presumably, most of those changes will happen on the defensive side of the ball. USC had a high powered offense this season featuring one of the best quarterbacks in college football (Jayden Maiava), the Biletnikoff winner (Makai Lemon), an elite rushing attack (Waymond Jordan, King Miller) and a stout offensive line (thank you Zach Hanson). All of USC’s assistants deserve props for doing a great job with their position groups (especially Hanson).

Still room for improvement

But it’s not as though USC was perfect on that side of the ball, or have been perfect in the Riley era. With such a crucial season up ahead, Riley needs to pull out all the stops to keep his job past 2026. If he thinks he can upgrade his offensive staff even a little bit, he needs to take that opportunity.

With that in mind, an accomplished offensive coach that Lincoln Riley knows very well just became available on the coaching market: his brother, Garrett Riley.

Would Lincoln consider adding Garrett to his offensive staff? Let’s talk about it.

Would Lincoln Riley hire Garrett as offensive coordinator?

It’s a generally agreed-upon principle in the sport of football that it is easier to win championships if the head coach is not calling the plays.

Lincoln Riley was still an elite play caller for most of this past season. But could he put more energy into holding his defensive staffers accountable, general program culture, and other initiatives if he let someone else call the plays?

It would take Lincoln swallowing his pride a little. But who better to let have a chance to call the plays than your own brother?

Garrett is a Broyles Award-winning offensive coordinator; he won the award in 2022 with TCU. That Horned Frogs team made the national championship game. He also previously led SMU to a Top 15 offense in the country both seasons he was with the Mustangs.

This is a pairing that could work out well for the USC program.

But, would they want to do that?

Garrett Riley may be the only person Lincoln would ever surrender play calling duties to. He could also be the last person Lincoln would ever want to surrender play calling duties to.

You know how sibling rivalries are. Maybe Lincoln would rather compete with Garrett than work with him.

Or, even if Lincoln does want to hire Garrett, what if Garrett doesn’t want to work under his little brother. That could be difficult — especially if Lincoln needs to push Garrett to be better or ever has suggestions for which plays he should call.

Positions Garrett Riley has coached are probably not open

In the past, Garrett Riley has been mostly a quarterbacks coach. Luke Huard had a great year and was a Broyles Award finalist, so USC probably wants to keep Huard around.

USC’s running back and tight end rooms were also excellent, so Chad Savage and Anthony Jones Jr. are also definitely coaches that USC should keep around.

Garrett Riley would likely need one of them to leave to fill one of those positions.

That leaves wide receivers coach as a position Garrett Riley could potentially handle. He was outside wide receivers coach at East Carolina in 2015.

So, should Garett Riley replace USC wide receivers coach Dennis Simmons?

If you squint really hard, you could find a reason for USC to move on from Dennis Simmons.

Simmons has coached some great wide receivers during his time at USC. Jordan Addison, Brenden Rice, Tahj Washington, Makai Lemon, Ja’Kobi Lane.

Simmons has clearly helped develop some incredible talent. However, USC has also squandered a lot of wideout talent since he’s been at USC. Duce Robinson and Zachariah Branch went on to be stars elsewhere. Other players like Dorian Singer never developed. In the Alamo Bowl, it became clear that USC had little wide receiver talent on the roster this season outside of Lemon, Lane and Tanook Hines (with respect to Jaden Richardson and his amazing catch).

If there’s any offensive position coach that Lincoln Riley would fire straight up to replace with Garrett, it would probably be Dennis Simmons. But, given the success Simmons has had at USC, that doesn’t mean it’s a move Riley should make.

A thought of caution: is Lincoln Riley hiring people he’s familiar with ultimately a good idea?

Familiarity has led to a lot of blind spots for Lincoln Riley in his coaching staff evaluation over the years. He held on to Alex Grinch and Bennie Wylie, former assistants who coached with him at Oklahoma, for far too long at USC.

Clemson did just fire Garrett Riley for a reason, though Garrett wasn’t the only reason why Clemson struggled so much this season. But if Lincoln Riley is going to look at anyone with rose colored glasses, it’s his own brother.

If this is a move you’re interested in seeing USC make, please evaluate it in the context of how good Garrett Riley is as a football coach. That’s what Lincoln Riley needs to do if he considers this, too.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Garrett Riley fired by Clemson, USC looks at revamp of coaching staff

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos